Text Size

-

+

reset

The opposition — which included 11 ITI member companies saying they strongly oppose a merger — is the first official gauge of how ITI's membership feels about merging with either TechNet or TechAmerica.

The results — after months of the industry trade groups jockeying to position themselves as the strongest voice for the industry, with an eye toward consolidation — suggest that pulling off a merger will be tricky.

The survey question specifically asked whether members would "prefer that ITI's expansion to incorporate other areas of work be achieved through" internal growth, a merger, targeted acquisition or some combination of the above. Regarding the merger, 11 strongly opposed, eight opposed, five had no opinion, while four supported and seven strongly supported merging.

Conversely, internal growth received the strongest support, with 15 members supporting it and 10 strongly supporting it. Some combination of internal growth, merger and targeted acquisition received 15 members' support and six members' strong support.

ITI CEO Dean Garfield told POLITICO that a merger "was not strongly supported, but as part of a broader strategic initiative it was strongly supported." He added: "The data can be interpreted in a number of different ways, but when you look at the question and look at the context, there was strong support for expanding."

Garfield said the survey is part of the organization's "due diligence, and [we] are very focused on doing everything we can to make our organization and the sector as powerful and impactful as we can be, on both policy and political issues ... and as a part of that goal, we've taken no viable option off the table."

Garfield said that he expected a plan to be in place before the end of the year on how to make the industry’s Washington presence as strong as possible. The ITI board is scheduled to meet in July to discuss how to best strengthen the sector, including a possible merger.

Since the survey was conducted in early May, Garfield said he has met with the majority of ITI's members and plans to meet with every member in order to get buy in to a final proposal.

Cisco's Michael Timmeny hailed ITI’s process.

"I think that the process is moving along at a very good clip," Timmeny said. He added that Cisco, which is a member of ITI and TechNet, is very supportive of the idea that the industry "have one voice, have one vision and have policy makers and elected officials listen and take notice."

Merger supporters have to figure out how to merge the different governance structures among the trade groups. Whether a combined trade group would be CEO-focused, like TechNet is, or would be run more like ITI, with a company government affairs-level approach, is an open question.

Although ITI members aren’t eager for a merger, TechNet companies are said to welcome the idea. TechNet CEOs have voted to move forward with consolidation, according to a source familiar with the trade group. At the same time, the CEOs voted unanimously to hire a consultant to work through how to move forward with that process. Discussions with consultants have begun, but the trade group has not yet formally retained anyone.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 1:58 p.m. on June 4, 2012.